Dionysiac Associations among the Dedicants of Hosios kai Dikaios Revisiting Recently Published Inscriptions from the Mihalıççık District in North-West Galatia

Four new epigraphic finds from the Mihalıççık District encourage us to reconsider the role that villages and associations played among those who made dedications to the divine pair Hosios kai Dikaios. According to the distribution of the evidence, the cult originated and remained concentrated on the north-east of Phrygia Epiktetos, but spread all over western Asia Minor and even beyond. After surveying the documents known previously especially thanks to M. Ricl (1991; 1992a; 2008) and classifying elements of the dedication formula, slightly improved readings and interpretations are offered for the five inscriptions (re-) published by H. Güney (2018a): twice, the imperial slave Chryseros is attested as fulfilling vows to the gods together with his fellow villagers (nos. 2, 3); three other instances, however, involve associations: perhaps a Β̣[ακχῖ]ον, the obscure Παρ[---]διᾶται, and the Κταηνοῖ, further specified as the Βαχῖον τὸ περὶ Τύραννον (nos. 4, 5, 1). The combined evidence catalogued by Ricl and Güney adds up to some 185 dedications to Hosios kai Dikaios, including, in their views, 17 cases that originated from village communities, compared to only two by associations. The present study argues instead that the ascertained evidence for villages is only six and that this is on par with the documentation of associations. All six of the latter can be identified as Dionysiac thiasoi.